How can a dental practice audit its own marketing?
A dental practice can audit its own marketing by checking nine areas in order: Google Business Profile, website, search visibility, ads, social, reviews, lead handling, tracking and reporting. For each one, confirm the practice owns the account, compare it with what good looks like, and note the gaps. Most problems show up in ownership, missed calls and tracking long before they show up in rankings.
- Start with ownership: confirm admin access to your domain, website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts and analytics before judging anything else.
- Call your own practice during busy hours and after hours; speed-to-lead often matters more than any campaign.
- Check booking and intake pages for ad pixels, which can send patient information to ad platforms.
- Judge reports by booked appointments and cost per booked appointment, not by clicks or impressions.
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What do you need before auditing your dental marketing?
Before auditing, gather admin logins for every marketing account, the last few monthly reports, a year of new-patient numbers from your practice-management system, and current spend split into fees and ad budget. Block a few hours. Work through the areas below in order and write down every gap, even small ones.
The ownership check comes first
List every account and who owns it: domain registrar, hosting, website, Google Business Profile for each location, Google Ads, Meta ads, analytics, tag manager and call-tracking numbers. If the agency is listed as the only owner of any of these, that is the most urgent finding in the audit. Ask for ownership to be transferred to the practice, with the agency added as a user.
How to record findings
Use three columns for each item: what you checked, what you found, and the fix. Mark each finding as urgent (risk to data, ownership or calls), important (affects new patients) or minor (polish). Fix the urgent items before asking for any new campaign.
Involve the office manager. They know how calls are answered, which forms reach the front desk and where patients say they found you. Those answers often explain gaps that no dashboard shows, such as a booking link that quietly stopped working.
If you would rather have an outside view first, the free practice visibility audit checks your public search presence, and you can compare it with your own findings.
What should a dental practice check on its Google Business Profile and website?
On the Google Business Profile, check categories, services, hours, photos, booking link and that the name, address and phone match the website. On the website, check that each key procedure has its own page, mobile booking works, insurance information is clear and emergency availability is easy to find. These two assets decide most local first impressions.
| Area | What to check | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Profile ownership | Who is primary owner of each location's profile | Practice is owner; agency is a manager |
| Categories and services | Primary category, secondary categories, service list | Dentist as primary (or the right specialty), services for implants, aligners, emergency care and others you offer |
| Hours | Regular, holiday and emergency hours | Accurate, including holidays; emergency availability stated where you offer it |
| Photos and posts | Real photos of the office, team and rooms; recent updates | Current real photos; regular posts about services and the practice |
| Name, address, phone | Consistency across profile, website and directories | Identical everywhere, one profile per location |
| Procedure pages | One page per major service | Separate pages for implants, aligners, crowns, emergency visits and cosmetic work |
| Insurance and fees | Is it clear which plans you accept or that you are fee-for-service? | A plain insurance page, membership plan details if you have one |
| Mobile booking | Test booking and the call button on a phone | Booking or call in one or two taps; forms short and working |
| Specialty claims | Words like "specialist" or "board certified" on pages and profile | Used only as your state dental board allows |
For the detail on profiles, see how dentists optimize a Google Business Profile. For the site, compare with what a dental website needs to convert new patients.
How do you audit dental search visibility, ads and social?
Search for your main services plus your city on a phone, signed out, from near the office. Note where you appear in the map results and organic results. Then open each ad account and check what you pay for, where it sends people and whether conversions mean real calls or bookings. Finally, check that social accounts are active and owned by the practice.
| Area | What to check | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Local search | Map and organic results for "dentist", "emergency dentist", "dental implants" and similar, plus your city | Visible for your priority services in the area you serve |
| AI answers | Ask AI assistants which dentists to consider for your services in your city | Your practice named, with accurate details |
| Search terms | Google Ads search terms report | Spend on relevant dental searches; irrelevant terms excluded |
| Landing pages | Where each ad sends people | A matching procedure page with a clear call or booking action, not the home page |
| Conversions | What counts as a conversion | Calls of a set length and booking completions, not page views |
| Ad copy | Offers, fee claims, before-and-after images, testimonials | Within your state dental board's rules and platform health-ad policies |
| Social | Account ownership, posting activity, response to messages | Practice-owned, active, messages answered; no patient details in replies |
Dental-specific items people miss
- Recall and reactivation. Check whether overdue hygiene patients get reminders, and whether those messages are sent with consent and through a tool covered by a BAA.
- High-value procedures. Implant, aligner and same-day crown campaigns should send people to their own pages, with financing or membership options explained.
- Emergency demand. If you take same-day emergencies, check that ads, profile hours and phone answering all say the same thing.
- Multiple locations. Each office needs its own profile, location page and tracked phone number, so results can be compared fairly.
Google and Meta both restrict some health-related targeting. If an ad account relies on audiences built from patient lists, check how those lists were made and whether a BAA covers the tool that holds them.
How should a dental practice audit reviews and speed-to-lead?
For reviews, check how you ask for them, how often new ones arrive and how you reply. For leads, call your own practice at busy times and after hours, submit your own web form, and time the response. Missed calls and slow callbacks lose patients that marketing already paid for. These are often the cheapest gaps to fix.
| Area | What to check | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Review requests | When and how patients are asked | Every satisfied patient asked after the visit, by text or email with consent, with a direct link |
| Review integrity | Any gating, incentives, staff-written or bought reviews | None; requests go to all patients regardless of expected sentiment |
| Review replies | Tone and content of replies | Prompt, polite, and never confirming someone is a patient or discussing treatment |
| Answered calls | Test calls at peak times, lunch and after hours | Answered live, or a callback well inside the same business day |
| Form follow-up | Time from form to first contact | Same business day, with a set owner for each enquiry |
| Call outcomes | How front desk records whether a call booked | Each new-patient call logged as booked, not booked or wrong fit |
The FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials took effect in October 2024. It bans fake reviews, buying reviews of a set sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews and suppressing negative reviews. If your reviews came from any of those, stop and talk to counsel. Replying to reviews also carries HIPAA risk; never confirm treatment details in a public reply.
What we found when we studied 2,318 US dental practices on Google
Patients praise the care and the people. Where they push back is the treatment-plan conversation: upselling is the one review theme where complaints dominate.
2,318 US dental practices across 20 metros · review themes, pace and replies from a 120-practice subsample · every headline figure re-derived from raw data.
How do you check that tracking is HIPAA-safe and reporting is honest?
Check which tags and pixels load on each page of your website, especially appointment request, intake and patient portal pages. Then compare your agency's reports with your own practice-management numbers. Good reporting ties spend to booked appointments. Good tracking measures that without sending patient information to ad platforms.
| Area | What to check | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Pixels on sensitive pages | Tags firing on booking, intake, contact and portal pages | No advertising pixels on those pages; server-side or HIPAA-safe setups under a BAA |
| Forms | Where form data goes and which tools store it | Tools covered by a BAA; no patient details in email subject lines or ad platforms |
| Call tracking | Recordings, storage and access | Vendor under a BAA; access limited to people who need it |
| Report metrics | What the report leads with | New-patient calls, booked appointments, cost per booked appointment, show rate |
| Data match | Agency's booked numbers against practice-management records | Numbers reconcile within a reasonable margin, with differences explained |
| Access | Can you see raw data yourself? | Live read access to ad accounts, analytics and call tracking |
The HHS guidance on online tracking technologies explains the risk. A federal court vacated part of it in June 2024 for unauthenticated public pages, but tracking on authenticated pages such as patient portals is still covered. Booking and intake flows remain risky. Our HIPAA dental advertising compliance guide goes further. Confirm your setup with counsel.
What should a dental practice do with its audit findings?
Turn the findings into a short, ranked action list. Fix ownership and HIPAA tracking issues first, then call handling, then the Google Business Profile and website, then ads and content. Share the list with your agency or in-house coordinator, agree dates, and repeat the audit every quarter so gaps do not quietly return.
A simple order of work
- Recover ownership of any account the practice does not control.
- Remove ad pixels from booking, intake and portal pages; confirm BAAs.
- Fix call answering, callbacks and form follow-up.
- Complete every Google Business Profile and fix inconsistent listings.
- Add or repair procedure pages and mobile booking.
- Clean up ad accounts: search terms, landing pages, conversions.
- Agree a monthly report built on booked appointments.
Use the dental marketing KPIs every owner should track to set targets. If the audit shows your agency owns your accounts or cannot explain its reports, it may be time to compare options.
Ichelon Consulting US runs this same audit at the start of every dental engagement, signs a BAA with every US client and tracks agreed goals live on Ichelon Agency OS. See our dental marketing agency USA page, or book a call with the US team to walk through your findings.
Related pages from the US team
Dental marketing agency USA
How Ichelon Consulting US audits and runs dental accounts.
Dental marketing KPIs
The numbers to set targets on after your audit.
Dental agency red flags
Warning signs your audit may uncover.
Switching dental agencies
What to do if the audit says it is time to move.
Every practice welcome — Goals-Driven engagements from $499/mo
We benchmark your last 90 days, agree monthly goals with you, and track them live on Ichelon Agency OS with a report every Monday. Performance-Linked Payout Models are available. Our US leadership is based in Dallas, and strategy calls run in US business hours.
Common questions
How often should a dental practice audit its marketing?
A dental practice should run a full marketing self-audit at least once a year and a lighter check every quarter. The quarterly check covers account ownership, call answering, review flow, tracking on booking pages and whether reported appointments match practice-management records. Run a full audit before changing agencies, opening a new location or raising ad spend.
What is the first thing to check in a dental marketing audit?
The first thing to check is ownership. Confirm the practice is the owner of its domain, website, hosting, Google Business Profile for each location, ad accounts, analytics and call-tracking numbers. If an agency is the only owner of any of these, recovering them is urgent, because losing access can cost years of ad history, reviews and search visibility.
How can a dentist check if website tracking is HIPAA-safe?
A dentist can check which tags and pixels load on appointment request, intake, contact and patient portal pages, using the browser's developer tools or a tag manager preview. Advertising pixels on those pages can send patient information to ad platforms. Tools that handle patient data should be covered by a BAA, and counsel should confirm the final setup.
How do you measure speed-to-lead at a dental practice?
Measure speed-to-lead by calling the practice at peak times, lunch and after hours, and by submitting the website form yourself, then timing the first live response. Also check call logs for missed new-patient calls and how quickly they were returned. Every new-patient enquiry should have a named owner and a same-day response target.
What should a good dental marketing report show?
A good dental marketing report leads with new-patient calls, booked appointments, cost per booked appointment and show rate, broken down by channel. It explains changes from the previous period and lists next actions. The practice should also have live read access to ad accounts, analytics and call tracking, so the numbers can be checked against practice-management records.
A note on this guide: it explains marketing practice, not legal advice. Rules on privacy, advertising and insurance change and vary by state, so confirm anything compliance-related with your own counsel.
Want a second pair of eyes on your audit?
Book a 30-minute call with the US team. We'll go through your ownership, tracking and call-handling findings and help you rank the fixes.